Amy123

Tldr: tried Cambia, felt almost immediate relief I've had episodic cluster headaches for over 20 years, lasting from about 8-12 weeks at a time (usually twice a year). The last few really unbearable cycles that ended me up in the ER, the doctors tried prescribing me prednisone. Aug 2022 First time worked immediately and no cycle for a little over a year, Dec 2023 second time took a few days to start working but cycle did stop, then by the third time, August 2024 the pred did not work at all. I went to urgent care after finishing my last pred taper still having multiple clusters a day, and the doctor I saw prescribed me a combination of meds along with the triptan I'm already prescribed to help prevent any possible rebound headaches I was having - the stand out one being Cambia. This is the only medication I have ever tried that actually aborted a cluster headache in under 5 minutes or less. It's an anti inflammatory in a powder form that you mix with water (like taking a shot). Not my favourite taste but man, worth every drop that stuff is liquid gold when I have a cluster. Triptans can take up to an hour to work for me and honestly by that point, it's hard to say whether the Triptan actually did anything or if the beast just finally ended on its own. But when I take Cambia, the results are almost immediate and it doesn't make me a zombie the rest of the day like triptans can. I'm now nearing the time of year I usually get an episodic cluster cycle and making sure my emergency medicine stash is ready to go! Getting prescribed oxygen to help abort a cluster is an uphill battle for me but for now, Cambia is there to help me out!

Thank you all for the replies! It's honestly helped so much, even just to give me the confidence and arm myself with all this info to go back to my doctor and get the right treatment plan going finally. I'll definitely check through my diet and eliminate some of those factors you mentioned, @ThatHurtsMyHead and be sure to pick up some of the 5 hr energy shots to try help abort the attacks. I'm going to have to just keep drilling my doctor about the O2 and how vital it will be to battling the beast. You're definitely right about the pred - I'm on the full dose day 4, some shadowing but no headaches until today. I have had two break through clusters so far. Defeating! I follow up with my GP closer to the end of the month. I start a new job on Monday, can't imagine how I'll do that with these going on as they are without the O2. Next cluster to come on later this evening or tomorrow, I might just go into emerge to try to convince that doctor for the O2 script sooner rather than later! And thanks @Ganuchi for the insight there, I'm gathering more and more that the trigeminal nerve affects so much more. I just read somewhere in my research, probably on this site it can swell 7 times the size during a cluster so its no kidding that it's so unbearably painful for us if that is truly the case. @Bejeeber and yes you're right about a specialist that i need! The emerge doc was shocked my GP hadn't sent me to another neurologist in 19 years. I've managed to find a couple headache clinics in Toronto that I am hoping I will be able to get a referral for. Notoriously long wait for specialists though so by the time I see them, it's likely I wont be in the episode but hopefully I am in the next cluster so they can help me! In the meantime, the wealth of information here will be so helpful! And that's great to know about the injection dose, I was able to get it in emergency room but I'm going to try to see if my doctor will switch the tablets I have for the vials of sumatriptan. The tablets, even the ones that go under the tongue, I think are pretty much useless for me. And I'll definitely start on the D3 regimen, got my vitamin grocery list ready here! and look more into busting. Funny - a couple weeks ago my friends were doing some recreationally but I felt so awful I didn't participate. Dang it, if I knew it could have helped!! I'll have to see if they still have some!

Hi all, first post here but I’ve been a follower of the forum for a while, having been a fellow CHer for the last 19 years since I was diagnosed with them when I was 13. Forgive me as it’s a long post but it’s rather therapeutic to get it out! Mine are episodic, with my latest episode beginning about 3 weeks ago and the one before that was in January 2020. I’m at my wits end battling these for so long, although I find myself fortunate I do not have to deal with these chronically like some, they do affect my quality of life greatly in the 1-3 months the episodes last as I’m sure all of you can empathize with. I unfortunately have a lot of trouble getting my GP on board with oxygen therapy, relevant lab work done or even just prescribing a correct dose of a medication I’ve finally been able to convince him to let me try. I believe he has good intentions behind this since he just doesn’t have a lot of experience with CH, however it’s definitely stale mating me in my fight against The Beast. I’ve mainly only been using triptans as my main source of abort, one time was prescribed propranolol - a beta blocker - however saw no results. This was so long ago I can’t remember the dose, but knowing my doctor it was likely the minimum recommended dose from manufacturer. My episodes are classic cluster - come on within minutes, unilateral focused on my right side always, teeth/jaw pain, feels like someone’s tearing my eye out, eyelid swells, sometimes droops, usually last anywhere from 30-45 min although I’ve had a few only last 5-15 min on occasion, some that last up to 4 hours. I always seem to be able to count on a hit about 2 hours after bedtime and within 2 hours of waking, occasionally I may get one through the day as well. One outlier symptom I seem to have is back pain. I always know a cluster is coming because I feel it in the right side of my back first then it crawls up into my shoulder/neck, does it’s ugly thing to the head and face all while my back is doing extremely painful spasms as well. If a cluster is shadowing me, I usually feel it in the back of my right ribs and up from there into my shoulder. Sometimes I take Flexeril, a muscle relaxant, to help the back spasms. If anyone also has experience with this, I’d love to get your insight. This current cycle has been again about 3 weeks in, started with 1 hit a day, then 2-3 and the last week it’s been 4-5, with extreme pain episodes lasting a long time. I considered perhaps I was having rebound headaches from having to abort with Triptan so often. Wednesday AM I woke up with a slight pain in the back of my right hip and knew a cluster was coming. Immediately took 50 mg sumatriptan tablet (was out of my Rizatriptan dissolvable) and half a flexeril tablet but the beast was on within 2 minutes. I had a very strange symptom I’ve never had before with the clusters, about 5 minutes into it all the sudden I just started sweating profusely but all the pain just suddenly ceased completely for a few minutes until finally the sweating stopped but the cluster came back at a 10. It’s been a long time since going to emergency room for a cluster as I live in a small town and in the past, I usually get the headache treatment where they put me in a dark room and wait it out. But with the strange new symptom, felt I had to go. by the time I got in front of a doctor, I was about an hour in and down to about a 5-6 pain wise, mostly in my back with some waves still going up into my head. We initially tried oxygen, I think it helped some but this would be more helpful if I could get it right when the attack was starting. it helped for the first 10 minutes then I felt like maybe it was giving me a different kind of headache. the doctor did a bit of researching and decided that we should try the steroid Prednisone to help prevent some of the attacks short term, reduce some of the inflammation that’s clearly going on in my back and hopefully get me to a new neurologist appointment (I haven’t seen one since I was diagnosed at 13.), follow up with my GP and go from there with treatment. after being given oxygen for about 15 min, 60 mg prednisone and another 6 mg sumatriptan, i felt much better after about 45 minutes and was discharged with a script for 60 mg prednisone for 6 days then to taper off by 10 mg a day until im off of them. And so far, knock on wood, it has at least interrupted the cycle but I’m weary of it for sure since I know this stuff has pretty strong side effects and it’s likely the clusters will come back. i was able to follow up with my GP on the phone today. Wasn’t able to convince him to get me oxygen at home to try, but was able to convince him to put me on Verapamil to hopefully help me continue to reduce the numbers of headaches long term after I’m done with the Prednisone. However dose of verapamil seems low (for what I’ve seen recommended for cluster), at 60 mg a day. I’m really not sure if the verapamil will help or not but I’m desperate to try anything. If the clusters do come back after the Prednisone, I’m also considering asking if we can try Indomethacin, just to rule out the possibility that it is Paroxysmal Hemicrania I’m dealing with instead. I did try the Vitamin D3 regimen in the past but this was while I was a struggling college student and couldn’t necessarily afford so much extra, even for my own health. I’m definitely going to try this again, would anyone recommend I wait until presnidone treatment is done? It scares me to be on it but it’s also been something of a miracle worker stopping this cycle in its tracks as it has so far.